An interview with EarthEn, the Winner of SCG Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin 2022

Have you ever heard of the classic fable the Tortoise and the Hare?

Of course, we all know that the tortoise, who kept pushing forward one step at a time and learning from the success of others and the mistakes of his own, was the winner at the end.

This fable is very much like the race for startups – a marathon where sprinters who get ahead at first may not emerge the victor.

To find out why that is, we talked to Manas Pathak and Karthi Chakaravarty, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of EarthEn — an energy storage startup from Arizona State University, USA, the winner of SCG Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin 2022 — Global Competition, a world-class business competition hosted by SCG Chemicals Public Company Limited (SCGC) and Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University, and the recipient of the prestigious royal trophy bestowed by HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

The beginning: Two men who shared the same passion

We founded our startup company EarthEn about a year ago. I’m the CEO, and I hold a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and a Master’s degree in business from WP Carey Business School, Arizona State University, while Karthi, the COO, just recently graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in neuroscience, supply chain management, and management.

We got to know each other at a pitch competition at WP Carey Business School, Arizona State University, where Karthi saw me delivering a pitch on an energy and sustainability business. Because Karthi understood the technology and the value proposition, we teamed up.

The main reason we got into venture capital was because we were really interested in energy and sustainability. What we are trying to do at EarthEn is to provide a solution for long-duration energy storage.

Challenges for a long-duration energy storage startup

When we started to see the transition happening in the market and energy industry from being pro-fossil fuel into clean energy because of climate change, we started to see one of the fundamental problems that exist with the renewable storage.

While solar and wind are nice renewable sources of energy, they are, unfortunately, intermittent sources of energy. This means that if the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing, there is no energy. In order to solve that problem, we can store energy when there is sunlight and wind for use when there isn’t.

How does EarthEn’s energy storage solution differ from others on the market?

Most energy storage solutions on the market can provide storage for only 4-6 hours of duration. Where we come into the picture is we provide longer duration. For example, if you use our energy storage at 07:00 P.M., you could almost last throughout the night all the way to the 07:00 AM. next morning when the sun is again shining. This is called long-duration energy storage – a source of power that can provide power constantly for 10 hours or more.

Killing two birds with one stone: Energy storage that takes carbon out of the atmosphere

Not only does EarthEn’s solution solve the problem of energy storage, but it uses carbon dioxide to do so. This means we are net carbon negative and we are curbing climate change not only through energy, but also by taking and utilizing the carbon out of the atmosphere.

Running a startup is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Personally, the factor of a successful global startup is resilience. The reason we say resilience is that this is not a sprint; it's a marathon. Another factor is that we do not give up. When we found out we were in the playoffs, we knew that we still had a fighting chance and that was the goal. We looked at all the judges’ feedback. We talked to the judges in the room and asked them how to fix and hone certain things to really understand what the judges were looking for. Knowing your audience is also very important because one judge may have a completely different opinion than another judge.

Get everything out in the first five minutes.

What’s really important is optimizing your airtime. It’s crucial to get all the important information that needs to be delivered in the first five minutes is crucial because there is a possibility that you don't finish your presentation because judges have a lot of questions if that happens, you're not in a good spot. So, optimizing and ensuring you're saying all the important things in the five minutes and weaving in the details and the nuanced things in the Q&A is really important.

Their perspective on Asian startups

As an outsider looking in, in Asian cultures, there’s a tendency to think that everyone should all solve the problem together rather than thinking that the train is leaving the station, whether you get on or not.

Creating that sense of urgency is really important for startups because you want to display to investors that, “this is an opportunity to you. You need me more than I need you because we're solving a huge problem and we're going to make a lot of money. We're very confident in our skills, our team, and our technology.” This is not something we’ve seen in a lot of Asian startups. They are phenomenal at presentations, but it they can create a sense of urgency and motivate investors, that will take them to the next level.

To go global, you need a global plan.

One thing we noticed at SCG Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin 2022, Global Competition, was that many startups were only targeting Asia as a market. A Filipino company, for instance, would target only the Philippines, and a Thai company would mainly target Thailand.

But for SCG Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin 2022, which is an international competition, really showing that you have a strong plan to go international outside of your circle is really important. You want to make sure that while most of these companies are solving global problems, you really iterate that this is a global problem and you have actively planned and thought about going beyond your circle.

The Valley of Death for startups

Many startups die in the phase called the Valley of Death because most investors, especially with a hard tech company such as US energy, defense, space, anything hardcore engineering and very technical, don't always have the resources available to do the technical  due diligence necessary. Since we're in a simulation level, it's sometimes hard to convince investors that our technology is going to work because they don't know. So, getting validation from government agencies that we're working with that this technology does work has been really crucial and helpful.

Investors don't want to give you a million dollars before you have a product, but you cannot build the product if you don't have the money. It's a classic chicken and egg problem, and many of the startups die right here. That’s why it takes resilience, courage, perseverance, and persistence to come out of this Valley of Death alive.

“You walk in as a boy and walk out as a man.”

For future applicants of SCG Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin, this is one of the best, largest, and longest-running competitions in the Asia, and probably in the world as well. You will get a ton of exposure and learning. Just by preparing for the application, and, if you are selected and fortunate enough to be semi-finalist, by preparing your pitch deck as you progress through the competition, you're going to grow. You might be a less mature startup going into this competition and walk out as a more mature startup.

Continued effort is the beginning of success. As long as you give it your all, take each step with determination, and go the extra mile, the finish line will soon be within sight!